Teacup Full of Cherries

…one product at a time!

So what three things have made my life easier as of late?

1. An espresso machine. I can’t even think back to when we didn’t have this (less than 1 month ago). Before it, I was waking up at 5:45am & leaving the house at 6:55am to drive 5 miles out of the way (equalling 10 extra miles daily and usually adding about 45 extra minutes to my 10 minute commute to work) because of the death grip Dutch Bros. coffee had on me. It cost me $4.75 +gas every day. Now I wake up about an hour later than I did, leave about 40 minutes later than I did, and some days I still wake up early….but then Bobby & I go to the gym, thus freeing up that time after work usually slated for gym times. It’s been a dream come true!

2. Restaurant style cheese grater. So many more dishes now have grated cheese on them. And my equation goes a little something like this: Tena’s happiness is directly proportional to the amount of cheese she eats.

3. Body pillow! Now Bobby hears much less of me whining about how he should come to bed with me and rub my back until I fall asleep. It’s a pillow….for your entire body! It’s like sleeping on a cloud. And another equation of mine goes like this: Tena’s happiness is directly proportionally to falling asleep with body pillow &/or Bobby.

Bobby has it bad. In the span of 7 days he has my birthday, Christmas, and our anniversary. Oh, but he handled it so well.

We made cookies!Lil was impressed with our decorating skills ala’ Martha Stewart.

We bought a real tree & decorated it!

Twinkle lights! …and needles everywhere.

Mah birthday starts off all the festivities. December 21st. I turned the big 2-6. Bobby surprised me a few hours before midnight on Dec. 20th by hiding my present under the tree while my back was turned:

Awesomeness. So we played that well into midnight to celebrate. The next day (my ACTUAL BIRTHDAY) Bobby took me to a fancy dinner @ Christopher’s. It was delicious and we had cheese, salmon, and my favvvvv: truffle fries!!!

Here I am at 26 years old, excited for truffle fries.

On to the main event: CHRISTMAS! So, of course, we couldn’t wait to open our presents until Christmas morn, so we did so on Christmas Eve afternoon.

I got a beeeeutiful locket & Beatles Rock Band. Hells yah! Bobby, his sister, and I ended up playing the entire game Christmas night. It took 4 hours, and yes, we even played the very, very last song since we were patient enough to sit though the credits. I sang, of course.

Bobby got his 4th calculator watch to replace the last one I bought him, an old money clip advertising the delightfully punny bar in Alaska: the Polar Bar. Oh yeah, I got him tickets to see Jeff Tweedy on December 27th!

So, December 27th rolls around, and we go see Jeff Tweedy at the Orpheum. We had a light snack at Hanny’s with some friends who were also going beforehand. It’s a cute little venue and Jeff Tweedy played an excellent acoustic set.

The next day was our 2 year anniversary, (and also my first day back to work since the 18th)! Wow-wow-wuzzy! So there I was, not excited to be back at work when I had a delivery! FLOWERS! AT WORK! AWESOME!

Freshening up my office. Some are still alive to this day!

When we got home, we decided to recreate our first date. First we headed to the oh-so-cheesy ZooLights.

Delightful! Then we took or growling stomachs to where we had our first dinner: Postino! In true Bobby style, he surprised me again with some lovely pink sapphire earrings! We decided to head home after that. We fell asleep around 11pm while watching the Simpsons. How romantic.

Phew, what a week.

Less than 3 months away, yeah. We met with the cake vendor in November and I nixed the cupcake idea and now we are going for the more traditional 3 tiered cake. The decision was based on the fact I’m sure everyone will want more than one cupcake of this delicious concoction, and with a three tiered cake….everyone will need to eat at least 3 pieces so we wont have leftovers. Off the top of my head, I can’t remember all the flavors, but I know it involves chocolate mousse and amaretto filling. It will look similar to this (minus the giant bow and the 4th tier):

We also purchased the wedding rings.

That is the larger version of mine, currently sent out to be handmade to fit my tiny little finger (size 49, which converts to a little smaller than size 5 here in the states). Bobby will have a band that matches the metal of my ring. The sales lady tried so hard to get him to add a diamond to his, but fortunately for me, Bobby is not the flashy.

I don’t think we will have a Honeymoon right away, but we are thinking New York. I certainly don’t want to go to any tropical place, because I bore easily if I’m not doing something every day on a vacation. Plus, we are the types who like more museums, more sights, more food, and just generally busy places.

Still have flowers, Bobby’s tux, invites, cake topper/decorations, and my dress alteration to go. Oh and invitations. Yeah, we’re slow.

Things I did in 2009:

1. Rang in the year with over 60.000 people at Disneyland…was delirious.

2. Rode the Simpsons ride….several times.

3. Became an aunt.

4. Chicago! Hel-LO!

5. Became engaged in Chicago.

6. 1 year anniversary @ my work. Perfect attendance!

7. New bikes!

8. Engagement pictures! (see Here!)

9. Turned 26.

10. Saw Jeff Tweedy live.

11. Celebrated 2nd anniversary with Bobby @ ZooLights & Postino ala our first date.

12. Lost 23 pounds.

13. Got sick only once!

14. Fell asleep on the couch on New Years Eve.

Humm…that’s all I can think of right now! But a good year, none-the-less! Although I have pretty high hopes for this year, it is even-numbered after all!